The UN Security Council has resolved to nearly double the number of
peacekeeping troops in South Sudan after a week of escalating violence, the
targeted killings of civilians and reports of bodies being dumped in mass
graves.

There are fears that the fledgling nation, formed in 2011 with great fanfare,
and with billions of dollars in international aid, is sliding towards civil
war. Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in the past ten
days after violence flared in the nation’s capital between factions loyal to
President ­Kiir and his rival, Riek Machar, the former Vice-President who
was